The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the winners in the Equitable and Affordable Solutions to Electrification (EAS-E) Prize, which accelerated the development and deployment of technology innovations that make building electrification retrofits easier and more affordable. The prize offered a total of $2.4 million in cash prizes and technical assistance to address the cost and complexities of home electrification, particularly the challenges faced in low-income communities, multifamily homes, mobile homes, older homes, and homes located in colder-climate regions.
Buildings account for 35% of total greenhouse gas emissions, and the path to a nationwide net zero-emissions economy requires many building technologies in the future to be powered by electricity from sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar. The building electrification process aims to upgrade fuel-burning appliances to more efficient, electric alternatives. Such upgrades, however, can trigger many additional building and grid infrastructure needs, and in some cases, they are not feasible with existing technologies. That is where the EAS-E Prize comes in: the prize calls for innovators to address residential building-electrification challenges head-on with new technologies and approaches.
“Each home faces unique needs that can create barriers to upgrades. The winners of the EAS-E Prize designed and demonstrated innovative electrification solutions that make sense for the wide variety of housing types and climates we have across the country,” said Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “These winning solutions make major strides toward advancing an ecosystem of products and approaches that are fast, easy, and scalable for the broader retrofit market, supporting both the grid and homeowners on the path to net-zero emissions.”
In Phase 1 of the prize, teams submitted a concept paper summarizing how their solution addressed affordable electrification. Six finalist teams were chosen to move to Phase 2, where their concepts were evaluated in real buildings and validated with state-of-the-art test beds and simulations. Teams were judged based on their demonstration results, as well as the commercial viability of the solution and letters of support from community members engaged with the demonstration and ready to use the team’s approach in real buildings at scale.
From the finalist pool, one grand prize winner was chosen to receive $1 million in cash prizes and three runners-up were chosen to each receive $325,000. The technologies developed by the winning teams support DOE’s Affordable Home Energy Shot goals to reduce the cost of upgrading homes by at least 50% while lowering energy bills by 20% within a decade. They will also aid implementation of DOE’s recently released Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy by 2050: A National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector, which lays out a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. buildings 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050 vs. 2005 while centering equity and benefits to communities.
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